2nd Series 05/13 - Evening Moods
by Macx
Summary: Vega in a remniscient mood.


Evening Moods

**Evening Moods**   
by Birgit Stäbler

It was early evening and the first streaks of dusk were already approaching. Autumn meant less daylight and an earlier dusk, announcing it would be winter soon. Not that winter was actually the snowy season. Electro City got few of those, but when the snow hit, it was real snow. Piles of it. Predictions hadn't come out yet whether or not it would be snowy this winter, but autumn was taking over for sure now.   
Derek Vega, lieutenant of the Electro City Police Department, leaned back in the chair and gazed thoughtfully at the large screen displaying the outside. The Magic Express had few real windows to the outside, most of them small port holes, but he had ordered Angel to give him a view from the roof camera. He liked to watch sunsets. They had a calming effect on him. That he was here to see the daily spectacle had one single reason only: he was too exhausted to go home.   
Same went for the second person in the room who lay outstretched on the couch, deeply asleep. Vega smiled as he looked at Ace Cooper. He looked so young when he slept, barely the thirty-plus he was. All the hard edges were smoothed out, all the masks had fallen, and he was the true Ace, the one only a select few of friends ever got to see. Vega was honored to be counted as one of them.   
Their friendship had started out as a cop chasing a criminal and it had ended being tight friends, trusting each other, relying on each other. Vega couldn't think of anyone else he'd rather have as back-up than Ace. Even without his magic, the man was an opponent to be reckoned with. His physical strength and fitness showed it.   
The old cop studied the sleeping man, still smiling. All those years ago he had made a choice, had taken a risk, and it had paid off. Ace Cooper had grown to be a fine man, a good friend, and... family. Vega would be hard-pressed to admit it, but he felt that Ace was like a son for him. He smiled as he kept looking at Ace. He had been a criminal with a record when they had met, one of the best thieves and burglars there was, a member of Jack Malone's gang, and a teenager who had done it all only for one reason: to be with the girl he had fallen in love with. There had been no other reason but love. Vega had risked a lot trying to influence the teenager, first acting as a friend, later being one for real. He didn't know when he had changed his mind about the boy, but probably the first time they had met and Ace had devoured his sundae.   
The smile grew warmer. Ace had been a lanky youth, wary but full of hope, distrusting   
but yearning to have a friend. Vega had turned into one against his better judgment and he had never been disappointed. He had made it his personal agenda to get Ace out of the gang and give him a chance. When the magic had come into that equation, he had struggled even harder to achieve his goal.   
Magic.   
Even today, after such a long time, he still marveled at the concept. The Magic Force was something he couldn't really grasp, even if he saw it every time he watched Ace work or fight crime. Magic and Ace were inseparable. He vividly remembered his conversation with Anna over the time he had visited Ace while he had stayed with her, and he remembered the very first talk about magic they had had. She had tried to make him understand what Ace was, what was inside him, what would happen, and though he had had difficulties to understand, he had tried. It had concerned a boy he had grown fond of. The subconscious fear had always been there, had never really left, but it had soon turned into acceptance.   
Over fifteen years ago, Vega would have laughed at the sheer idea of such a thing as magic even existing. Now he knew.   
And he had seen it again today.   
They had busted a smugglers' ring and Ace had pulled his bacon out of the fire with his powers. A few of the smugglers had escaped, but his men were rounding them up. Those who had fought back had managed to collapse several shipping crates onto the cop, but Ace had used levitation and telekinesis to lift the heavy weights up. It had drained the younger man severely and Vega had once again seen the limit. Ace had been totally out of it, holding his head, and the cop knew he was going through another headache again.   
Vega knew a lot more than he had initially about the limits the magician had. He wasn't all-powerful and he had very strict limits. He pushed past those limits sometimes, but it always struck back at him and Ace suffered from either a simple headache up to complete exhaustion and a full-blown migraine. Vega had hauled him into his car and gotten him home. The Racer could be picked up at a later date. Ace had mumbled something, tried to tell him he was just fine, then he had collapsed on the couch. And he had been dead asleep a minute later.   
Yeah, he had gotten in over his head and all because he had saved Vega. Not for the first time, not for the last time. They made quite a team as crime fighters. Vega had repaid him numerous times already and both had stopped counting. It was how things worked.   
When Cosmo had entered their until then rather smoothly running world, Vega had protested immediately. Cosmo, thief, hacker, criminal...... a boy Ace had set his mind on taking care of. A boy not unlike himself, as he had told Vega over and over again. Today the older man had to confess that Ace had been right, ignoring a few bumps and potholes along the way. He had been right about Cosmo and the distrusting teen had turned into a competent though temperamental and pig-headed boy. Someone to match Ace, Vega thought fondly. Just like Ace in so many ways. If he looked back at it today, Vega saw how much those two fit together. Ace had been kind of lonely till the day Cosmo had appeared; a showstar without a family, someone looking for company and unable to stay around long enough for any partnership to work, and in love with only one woman on top of that. A woman who, until about a year ago, had more hated than loved him.   
Yeah, Cosmo and Ace fit together. And Cosmo was a magician as well now.   
He grinned. Cosmo, the magician. Headache central. Thinking of Ace as a magician had been a headache already back then until Anna had stepped into the picture. Cosmo as a magician was worth a migraine. Vega didn't know why, but those two factors didn't mix in his opinion. That Cosmo was doing everything to learn and that he hadn't been really happy about his abilities to start with had done nothing to that feeling. But he was learning. Well, both did. Cosmo was learning about his abilities, Vega about the teen. And about Ace who had taken over teaching Cosmo and who did it with stubborn determination not to mess up.   
As if Cooper ever could, he thought wryly.   
Ace was a perfectionist, almost paranoid when it came to his powers, both physical and magical, and he rather wouldn't go up against anyone with it. When he did, huh, he could wreak havoc.   
Vega yawned and put his feet up on the low table. The sun had almost set and only a soft orange hue across the darkening sky showed. He would have to get up and leave. Falling asleep in the armchair was no his favorite position. His body would repay it with aches and cramps.   
Not getting much younger, he sighed to himself.   
He gazed at the sleeping Magician. The couch couldn't be that much more comfortable either, but he wasn't ready to wake Ace. It was good he was sleeping. He had exhausted himself and tomorrow was another show. Ace needed his strength for that. He had performed with worse injuries before and Vega shuddered as he remembered just what his friend had gone through in all those years, culminating in the complete change of his persona about a year ago when Blackjack had changed Ace's brain chemistry. They had all suffered a lot, had gone through hell and come back stronger but scarred, and he had no idea what the future held.   
Finally hauling himself up, Vega tip-toed to the door. The Magic Express' main entrance door slid open noiselessly and he walked outside, stretching, feeling another yawn approach. The air was already cooling and the wind had picked up. As he was about to walk over to his car, headlights pierced the twilight and the unmistakable whine of a motorbike pierced the silence.   
"Yo, Vega!" Cosmo called cheerfully and stopped the bike.   
"Evening, Cosmo."   
"Ace home?" the teenager asked, running a hand through his unruly hair, which had not much suffered from the helmet. Somehow, nothing could tame that mop.   
"Yeah. He's asleep. Headache."   
Cosmo nodded. "Felt something like that today. Looks like you guys ran into trouble again." He grinned obnoxiously.   
Vega refrained from a comment and just shot him a dark look. Empaths! "Just let him sleep."   
"Sure. No problem. I'll be a mouse."   
"Good night, Cosmo."   
"Night, Vega." Cosmo waved and disappeared into the train.   
Vega yawned once more and got into his car. Sleep sounded very enticing at the moment. Very.   
The battered old car pulled away from the old railyard and onto the byway that would lead to the main street. Vega knew his way by heart, with his eyes closed, and he would be home in a flash. Tomorrow would be another day and he'd have to set up his report and see if his men had found the remaining smugglers. For tonight, he had shed the police officer uniform, even if he didn't wear one anymore. Tonight, he only wanted to go to sleep.   



End file.
